Saving character selection

How can I save my character selection? I write these lines but when I reopen the game or reload the scene I lost my selection and selectedCharacter equals 0. For example if I choose second character, selectedCharacter should equal the second character value and when I reload the scene selectedCharacter should equal the second character value. I will be so happy if you help me.

 using UnityEngine;
 using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;
 
 public class Characters : MonoBehaviour
 {
     public GameObject[] characters;
     public int selectedCharacter=0;
 
      void Start() {
         while(0 < PlayerPrefs.GetInt("selectedCharacter"))
            NextCharacter();    
     }
 
     public void NextCharacter()
     {
         characters[selectedCharacter].SetActive(false);
         selectedCharacter = (selectedCharacter + 1) % characters.Length;
         characters[selectedCharacter].SetActive(true);

         PlayerPrefs.SetInt("selectedCharacter", selectedCharacter);
     }
     public void PreviousCharacter()
     {
         characters[selectedCharacter].SetActive(false);
         selectedCharacter--;
         if (selectedCharacter < 0)
         {
             selectedCharacter += characters.Length;
         }
         characters[selectedCharacter].SetActive(true);

         PlayerPrefs.SetInt("selectedCharacter",  selectedCharacter);
     }
 
     public void StartGame()
     {
         PlayerPrefs.SetInt("selectedCharacter", selectedCharacter);
         SceneManager.LoadScene(1,LoadSceneMode.Single);
     }
 }